Inside Wellpoint’s Campus Overhaul

Wellpoint Care Network, 8901 W. Capitol Dr. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

A former orphanage is being redeveloped as a northwest side community anchor under a multi-year plan from Wellpoint Care Network.

The trauma-informed-care-focused nonprofit rebranded itself as Wellpoint, from SaintA, in 2022 and is now well into a comprehensive, $25 million overhaul of its 18-acre campus, 8901 W. Capitol Dr.

“I feel like at this point we’ve really figured out how to best be part of this community and to best bring the services we offer to the people in our care,” said President and CEO Ann Leinfelder Grove during a tour of the 120,000-square-foot facility.

The campus overhaul, which includes a public-facing community room, new offices and meeting spaces, a training center and a clinic, reflects the continued evolution of the way Wellpoint provides care.

“We’ve been on this evolution of being more community-facing,” she said. That includes adding more services to support families, including providing many services at their homes. “Strong neighborhoods create healthy families and thriving kids.”

The facility was constructed in 1955 and its use began evolving almost immediately as orphanages were replaced by foster care and adoption. Wellpoint has progressively added different services related to mental health and other supportive services. In 2007, it began practicing trauma-informed care and, in 2017, it shuttered its residential care operation. “For a lot of those years, this has been a locked place where treatment is occurring,” said Leinfelder Grove.

The organization is now throwing open the doors to some of the campus, while still maintaining private or semi-private spaces where various forms of treatment, including art and occupational therapy can take place.

Windows are being replaced and other enhancements are being made to bring in more natural light and establish the natural campus outside as a welcoming part of the healing process. “A space people feel calm and happy and bright,” said the CEO describing the vision. A community garden was added, giving neighbors another reason to visit the property, and a walking path will ring the property.

Office space for the organization’s 335 staff members is now configured in an egalitarian manner, two floors of cubicle work pods and a variety of different small breakout rooms or workspaces. Everyone from the CEO to entry-level workers uses the same space, changing desks by the day. “These are not your hand-me-down, nonprofit desks,” said Leinfelder Grove. Adjustable desks, dual monitors and comfortable furniture evokes the feeling of a modern law firm, not a non-profit.

The reconfiguration reflects a move to a hybrid work model where only 150 employees per day are likely to visit the building and a shift to digital records.

A suite of 18 meeting spaces offers team members larger rooms near the offices. “This would have been the priests’ quarters in 1955,” said Leinfelder Grove, noting a use that now requires a lot of imagination to envision. Similarly, the community room near the front door was once a chapel. Wellpoint ended its religious affiliation in 1969.

The clinic at the east end features a variety of rooms and also includes rooms designed to accommodate telehealth services, which Leinfelder Grove said are particularly popular with teenagers.

The organization’s programs are primarily funded by government contracts or insurance providers

Wellpoint’s largest contract is with the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families to provide child welfare case management. It provides both Medicaid and insurance-paid mental health services.

The new clinic is designed to allow the organization to grow its mental health services, for which Leinfelder Grove notes there is more demand than can immediately be served.

Wellpoint is partnering with the YMCA to open an early care education center in the exposed lower level of the facility. “Our goal is to serve up to 120 little ones, birth to five,” said the CEO. The organization will be a tenant, but Wellpoint will support the Y’s efforts with its trauma-informed care. Fundraising for the project is still necessary. “We’ll get there.”

Groth Design Group is serving as the project architect. VJS Construction Services is serving as the general contractor.

The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District is adding a stormwater facility at the southwest corner of the campus to keep runoff from entering the sewer system.

Leinfelder Grove, who has been with Wellpoint for 34 years, said the organization discussed constructing a new building on open land at the south end of the site. “The notion of repurposing what is a pretty historic building was very appealing, and not just assuming the answer is tearing down and building a big box,” she said. “There are days when we’re like ‘why did we do that?’ when we come upon something that wasn’t anticipated, but it’s a very sturdy building which is hard to do with modern construction.”

She said the organization committed to its plan in 2018. “Years later, we’re still working at it,” said the CEO, noting the pandemic and supply chain issues that caused unexpected delays. Wellpoint hopes to complete the construction project near the end of 2024.

When finished, the length of the project will be just a blip in the extensive history of the organization. Its founding can be traced back to 1850, when St. Aemilian’s Orphan Asylum was created Downtown in a house near St. John’s Cathedral.

Wellpoint, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, reported $28.6 million in revenue and $28.8 million in expenses in its 2021 federal 990 tax filing. An independent board governs the organization.

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